The Start button on contemporary (e.g., Microsoft Windows®-based) computer shells/user interfaces provides a simple and unambiguous way for even novice users to activate a Start menu, e.g., via a mouse point-and-click operation. Some contemporary keyboards include one or more dedicated keys, e.g., marked with a Microsoft Windows® logo, that when pressed provide the same Start menu.
In general, from the Start menu, various computer programs and tasks may be launched. However, for many users, the Start menu only provides basic functionality, and may not even be used very often, as shortcuts and the like appearing on the shell program's desktop can also launch application programs and tasks.
Moreover, the computing model around which the Start button was designed has changed. For example, in the past, typical users had on the order of ten programs and a few hundred documents, with most if not all located on one or more local hard drives. Today, with types of documents including conventional documents, mail messages, photos, songs and movies being digitized, users may have thousands or even millions of documents. These documents may be scattered among various sources, e.g., on local drives, on the internet, on home and/or enterprise networks, and/or other places such as USB storage devices.